We Offer Opportunity

       We have all heard the expression, "Opportunity Knocks".  It conjures up images of something good coming your way.  It could be a new friend, a promising new relationship, a new job, or a chance to get some thing that you've always wanted.

       

       "Opportunity Knocks" also implies that this good thing is offered to you, but it is not thrust upon you.  You can take it or you can leave it.  As adults, we sometimes lament the opportunities that were offered to us that we did not accept.  We also (in hindsight) sometimes realize opportunities that we were offered and didn't recognize them as opportunities at the time.

       Our public schools offer opportunity to our students.  The opportunity to learn, to grow, to be responsible citizens, to be successful...  The process of educating children is long; it is divided into different school levels and different subjects.  It is offered by different people at different times.  It probably doesn't look like an opportunity some of the time.  But it is.

       We owe it to our students to help them to see the opportunity that is being offered to them.  We don't want them to have regrets of denying this opportunity later in their life.  We are the adults, we have the wisdom of years; the long view.  We have the moral authority to understand (as best as we can) how students think and how they learn.  We need to know how we can talk with them to make them understand the opportunity that is being offered to them today and everyday that they are in school.

       Public schools have many responsibilities to our students and to our society.  Teaching is only part of our job.  Ensuring that the learning is taking place is the (much more) important part of the job.

       Opportunities that come from our public schools should not be in disguise.  They should be made apparent and obvious to all of our students.  We want them to take advantage of these educational opportunities and we want them to grow and improve because of these opportunities.